Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: The interdisciplinary nature of nanotechnology and its need to exploit frontier characterization techniques / Carlo Lamberti -- Ab initio studies of structural and electronic properties / Maria Peressi, Alfonso Baldereschi, and Stefano Baroni -- Electrical characterization of nanostructures / Anna Cavallini and Laura Polenta -- Strain and composition determination in semiconducting heterostructures by high-resolution X-ray diffraction / Claudio Ferrari and Claudio Bocchi -- Transmission electron microscopy techniques for imaging and compositional evaluation in semiconductor heterostructures / Laura Lazzarini, Lucia Nasi, and Vincenzo Grillo -- Accessing structural and electronic properties of semiconductor nanostructures via photoluminescence / Stefano Sanguinetti, Mario Guzzi, and Massimo Gurioli -- Power-dependent cathodoluminescence in III-nitrides heterostructures : from internal field screening to controlled band-gap modulation / Giancarlo Salviati, Francesca Rossi, Nicola Armani, Vincenzo Grillo, and Laura Lazzarini -- Raman spectroscopy / Daniel Wolverson -- X-ray absorption fine structure in the study of semiconductor heterostructures and nanostructures / Federico Boscherini -- Nanostructures in the light of synchrotron radiation : surface-sensitive X-ray techniques and anomalous scattering / Till Metzger, Vincent Favre-Nicolin, Gilles Renaud, Hubert Renevier, and Tobias Schülli -- Grazing incidence diffraction anomalous fine structure in the study of structural properties of nanostructures / Maria Grazia Proietti, Johann Coraux, and Hubert Renevier -- The role of photoemission spectroscopies in heterojunction research / Giorgio Margaritondo -- ESR of interfaces and nanolayers in semiconductor heterostructures / Andre Stesmans and Valery V. Afanasʹev.